Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L.: In Two Volumes. Volume II.Reeve, Henry
History
Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L.: In Two Volumes. Volume II.
Reeve, Henry
Journalists -- Great Britain -- 19th century -- Biography; Reeve, Henry, 1813-1895; Reeve, Henry, 1813-1895 -- Correspondence
'One great source of his influence was the just belief in his complete
independence and disinterestedness. For a very able man his ambition was
singularly moderate. As he once said, he had made it his object throughout
life only to aim at things which were well within his power. He had very
little respect for the judgement of the multitude, and he cared nothing
for notoriety and not much for dignities. A moderate competence, congenial
work, a sphere of wide and genuine influence, a close and intimate
friendship with a large proportion of the guiding spirits of his time, were
the things he really valued, and all these he fully attained. He had great
conversational powers, which never degenerated into monologue, a singularly
equable, happy, and sanguine temperament, and a keen delight in cultivated
society. He might be seen to special advantage in two small and very select
dining clubs which have included most of the more distinguished English
statesmen and men of letters of the century. He became a member of the
Literary Society in 1857 and of Dr. Johnson's Club in 1861, and it is a
remarkable evidence of the appreciation of his social tact that both bodies
speedily selected him as their treasurer. He held that position in "The
Club" from 1868 till 1893, when failing health and absence from
London obliged him to relinquish it. The French Institute elected him
"Correspondant" in 1865 and Associated Member in 1888, in which latter
dignity he succeeded Sir Henry Maine. In 1870 the University of Oxford
conferred on him the honorary degree of D.C.L.
'It was in 1855, on the resignation of Sir George Cornewall Lewis, that he
assumed the editorship of this "Review," which he retained till the day
of his death. Both on the political and the literary side he was in full
harmony with its traditions. His rare and minute knowledge of recent
English and foreign political history; his vast fund of political anecdote;
his personal acquaintance with so many of the chief actors on the political
scene, both in England and France, gave a great weight and authority to his
judgements, and his mind was essentially of the Whig cast. He was a genuine
Liberal of the school of Russell, Palmerston, Clarendon, and Cornewall
Lewis. It was a sober and tolerant Liberalism, rooted in the traditions
of the past, and deeply attached to the historical elements in the
Constitution. The dislike and distrust with which he had always viewed the
progress of democracy deepened with age, and it was his firm conviction
that it could never become the permanent basis of good government. Like
most men of his type of thought and character, he was strongly repelled by
the later career of Mr. Gladstone, and the Home Rule policy at last severed
him definitely from the bulk of the Liberal party. From this time the
present Duke of Devonshire was the leader of his party.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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